Earlier this month, it was revealed that Paramount Pictures was moving forward with "Mission: Impossible 5" and that Tom Cruise signed on to reprise his Ethan Hunt role.

Now comes word that the studio just hired "Iron Man 3" co-writer Drew Pearce to write the script for the fifth "Mission: Impossible" installment. Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) is in talks to direct.

"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" hit theaters in 2011 and went on to gross almost $700 million worldwide, which is much higher than all other installments in the franchise. It also has an impressive 93% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.

I actually have nothing negative to say about this news, except perhaps Jack Reacher could have been way, way better, but that was the writer's fault, not McQuarrie, and the fact Cruise looked ridiculous fighting people twice his size and half his age.

Jack Reacher is superior over all four Mission: Impossible films, because it actually has a brain and some themes that drive the story ...oh, and a story.

Mission: Impossible movies are just a series of showy set pieces (the first one is still the best) and the character Ethan Hunt is totally bland and forgeable. At least Reacher has a genuine anti-authoritarian attitude and is more convincing concerning Cruise's age.

Not really sure what sh*t Cannon is smoking, but the thought the Jack Reacher film somehow "had a brain" makes me truly laugh out loud. In fact, if I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't be able to tell you at all what the f*ck happened.

I do know Cruise as Reacher was laughable, especially the one scene in the street where he's opposed by five men. Hilarious. He looks like a child with progeria.

And never in the film does Reacher display any of the cold calculating skills he possesses in the books. He just arrives at a conclusion, slams it home and everyone says "thanks" and moves on.

The finale is weak too. He commits cold-blooded murder. Why? No one knows, but in the books, Reacher's a psychopath, and I guess that's what passes for heroic in these troubled times. No law, no justice, just some homeless giant killing unarmed, broen bad guys because he feels like it.

But the worst part is you don't remember the movie. It's absolutely lackluster. The ending is flat and anti-climactic, the characters are devoid of any life and the action is sparse and generic.

Not a terrible movie, but f*ck, at least with Mission Impossible you get enough action to make you glad you spent the ten bucks. After Jack Reacher I needed a hot shower just to wash away the shame, and it was a Pirate Bay download.

Deaft0ne: I've read them all. All seventeen of them. You should start with Killing Floor. If you don't like it, you won't like the rest. And be prepared: if you decide to read them all, they decline in quality as you go.

1. Numerous scenes depict Reacher working through problems, accounting for different variables and replaying the opening scenario over in his head. He doesn’t have every answer right away, but certain situations he quickly assesses, the method for which should not be explicated, as is done in the novels, when cinema can show these skills at face value. It makes it more exciting and immediate that way.

2. I’m confused. You say you like the book but then criticize the protagonist in the film for committing cold blooded murder like he does in the book. Why does he do it? I think the circ*mstances make it quite clear. And I never thought that he’s supposed to heroic in the goodie conventional sense.

3. I remember -- the characters and the story -- a hell of a lot more than any of the characters from the Mission: Impossible films, which is my main point/comparison here. Who was Jonathan Rhys Meyers? Who was Maggie Q? Who was Jeremy Renner or Paula Patton or the bad guy from Ghost Protocol? And I stand by it that Cruise as a wayward, thinking-man Reacher is more memorable a character than Cruise simply as a grinning, extreme-sports-white-guy Ethan Hunt. By that last film he was practically no character at all, other than Cruise himself going through the motions.

4. As for the action, sparse? Yes. Generic? No. If I can buy Cruise dangling off skyscrapers then I can buy Cruise beating up some dudes in the street, height differences included. I thought the fight scenes in Jack Reacher were clear and economical, not under/over-choreographed or flash-edited. I thought the car chase was one of the best ever committed to the medium for the way it was technically handled, blowing Drive out of the water while, at the same time, never spilling over into Fast & Furious absurdity. I liked how the end quarry shootout was methodically paced instead of just being yet another assault on the senses.

"If I can buy Cruise dangling off skyscrapers then I can buy Cruise beating up some dudes in the street, height differences included."

Except in the book, Reacher is easily six foot five and weighs a two hundred and fifty pounds and has, according to Lee Child, fists like basketballs.

Cruise is NONE of that. Hell, I'm bigger than Cruise, in fact. Maybe they should have hired me?

And you mention jumping off a skyscraper, but little flying squirrels dive from redwoods, none of which takes muscle mass, size or height, so it's far more believable, physically speaking, for Cruise to let gravity pull him to earth than the little midget beating up two or three men twice his size. It's f*cking laughable, as I said.

" I thought the car chase was one of the best ever committed to the medium for the way it was technically handled, blowing Drive out of the water while, at the same time, never spilling over into Fast & Furious absurdity."

I think you just liked the camera angles employed in that one scene that featured gleaming chrome and glass and mercury-vapor lamps, because to be honest, I otherwise saw nothing worth mentioning, unless a little man hunched under the steering wheel of a muscle car is somehow innovative these days after decades of action car racing.

"I liked how the end quarry shootout was methodically paced instead of just being yet another assault on the senses."

If you say so. I saw a short, cliched climax where no one was even scraped much less wounded besides the bad guys, a lot of sh*tty shooters on the villain side, bad guys who couldn't find their d*ck with both hands, and lots of ducking behind rocks and dump trucks, but if you say it was a very seminal action scene, then I guess you're right...

Never read the books, no, but I understand the physical stature of the character was vastly altered for the adaptation. I also think some practicality needs to be considered: there are no 6’5 barrel chested Olympians currently working in the industry with enough charisma to lead a film. Even Lee Childs himself admitted that the casting of such was fairly unrealistic, and that Cruise was simply a different physical take on the character that worked just as well in its own right.

I liked the car chase because it was staged, shot and edited with precision, and because (hidden stunt man or not) we actually see the actors-as-characters driving the cars. It was old-fashioned meat'n'potatoes, but smartly done. But we’re drifting further and further into subjective waters here, so...that whole agree to disagree thing.

Mission Disposable. A couple of days ago saw Oblivion, man it made me remember Smith´s I am Legend, a film that begun great and ended up ending flat out like a half baked cake without the sweet flavor.
So this Kosinsky flick, bad flick, I mean, any f*cking yerk can make a beautiful honey-looking movie, but man what a lame story, kind of like interesting, sort of but then not.

As for M:I series and that Lee Child based movie, well, I don´t have anything to say, except the first 3 M:I flicks, then I didn´t care for the Casper Protocol, by the way, so, thank you.

I completely agree with Cannon's post because that's how I perceived it. Yes T. Cruise doesn't fit with the required height but overall the movie was quite good and very well edited as I spent a good time watching it. And I'm the last one to support the Scientologist freak. Besides I know for a fact that Cruise is hell of a good driver and handling that undrivable muscle car was well done.

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" I deliberately went six years without sex, so I think I could avoid her of all people."

I really don't know how physically and mentally you managed to do that but honestly you're one man of a kind. I mean you must have one hell of a strong willpower Mink to live without it fro so long.

@mink
Honestly Cruise only seems truly interested when he does Mission Impossible. He loves pushing his character to the limit physically. I mean his stunts in those movies are incredible and "Ghost Protocol" topped it all when he actually climbed the tallest building ever. Granted he was on wires but, one wrong move, and he goes bye bye.

@Turn Up The Volume
You are right he did. I enjoyed Jack Reacher don't get me wrong. It just feels Mission Impossible is where his strengths are utilized in action and pushing the envelope. No one can deny he does that.